Chocolate or carob covered food and granola bars are known and sold commercially. Such products generally contain an admixture of nuts and grains, bound together with an edible material such as peanut butter and/or a sweetening agent, which admixture is formed into a bar or any desired shape and subsequently coated with a thin layer of chocolate or carob.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,421,771 to Stock et al., discloses chocolate covered nutrient bars, wherein a fibrous vegetable filling material having a relatively high water content, is enclosed by waffles, wafers, or biscuits, after which the entire product is covered with a thin layer of chocolate. The vegetable fiber may be whole wheat bran and the filling may include honey, fruits, fruit jellies, or jams.
German Federal Republic Patent Application No. 2,746,479 to Charlet et al., concerns confectionery bars such as chocolate bon-bons, etc, whereby shredded bran or vegetable fiber is added in an amount of 5% to 75% by weight. The presence of the bran or vegetable fiber, which may be used in the form of a finely divided powder or coarse granulate, is said to be beneficial to a consumer's health and well-being.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,565,702 to Morley, et al., discloses a chocolate covered fiber snack bar wherein the fiber core contains an insoluble dietary fiber coated or enrobed with a soluble dietary fiber. The insoluble dietary fiber is derived from a cereal bran and the soluble dietary fiber may be gum arabic, tragcanth, karaya ghatti, agar, alginates, carrageenans, furcallan, psyllium, galactoman, and mixtures thereof.
Other known food and snack products are formulated to contain textured food material and/or fiber admixed with chocolate.
For example, Japanese patent application No. 53081662 and Japanese patent application No. 53081663 to Fuji, disclose soft confectionery products containing textured protein, which are used in the preparation of snack foods or as ingredients in chocolate balls, cookies, breads, etc. The soft confectionery products may additionally contain a fiber material.
In Japanese patent application No. 58098042, to Miyahara, powdered broad-leaved tree wood and walnut shell powder are combined and added to confectioneries, (such as chocolate or caramel) or to protein foods, (such as ham or sausage) to increase the vegetable fiber content of such confectioneries and foods.
Japanese patent application No. 58067153, to Kimura, discloses the admixture of rice bran with chocolate, sugars, bread, candy, tea, etc. to provide nutritious products which good are for the health.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,654,548 to McLaughlin et al., discloses globules of cocoa encapsulated in an admixture of an edible vegetable albumin and sugar. The vegetable albumin is derived from coconut. The encapsulated globules of cocoa are added to cocoa butter to provide a finished chocolate of improved flavor and digestibility.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,568,557, to Becker et al., discloses a snack food product prepared by premixing a dietary fiber with a food grade oil; premixing a compound coating containing a fractionated fat, sweetener, milk solids, yogurt, and a flavoring agent; blending the two pre-mixtures and adding a cereal product to obtain texture and a dried fruit or nut for flavor; and extruding the resulting mixture into a desired shape.
The use of fiber supplements as bulk laxatives or for bowel normalization is also known in the art. Products which provide approximately 5 grams of corn or wheat fiber per supplement are sold commercially. In additional, natural fiber laxative products containing psyllium, a bulk producing dietary fiber, are also known in the art and available commercially. For example, a thin wafer which contains psyllium as well as other fibers such as wheat bran and oat bran is commercially available. Another well-known commercially available bulk laxative product provides granules of psyllium which are admixed with water prior to ingestion.
European patent application No. 0068229, to Kleinert, discloses the addition of the seed coats (episperm) of cocoa beans in finely powdered form, to dough, bread, snacks, and chocolate to increase bulk and stimulate the intestinal tract.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,348,379, to Kowalsky, discloses a dietetic composition for natural digestion regulation containing whole fleawort seeds (Semen psyllii totum) whole linseed, wheat bran, lactose, a binding agent based on natural rubber, flavor and food color additives. The preferred binding agent is gum arabic.
Thus, a variety of fiber materials have been admixed with fat-containing ingredients such as chocolate or food-grade oils to provide snack products which are considered healthful.
In addition, non-fibrous materials (such as crisp rice which is a puffed, baked product) have been admixed with chocolate to provide an appealing crunchy texture. And psyllium fibers in powdered or in seed form have been admixed with other fibers to provide bulk laxatives or products which are said to stimulate the natural digestive processes. However, the taste of most products containing a sufficient amount of fiber to be efficacious continues to be a problem. Thus, it is quite surprising that whole psyllium husks, when admixed with a flavored, sweetened, food-grade vegetable fat, at efficacious levels, will provide a crunchy dietary fiber supplement composition with an especially appealing texture.